Brent Venables shuts down questions on Oklahoma QB John Mateer’s injury

Four straight questions early during Tuesday’s weekly press conference, Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables was asked something related to the status of injured quarterback John Mateer, and every time, Venables still doubled down that he doesn’t know anything about when Mateer could return while still not sounding optimistic.

Venables has been tight-lipped this whole time about Mateer’s timeline, and during his coach’s show Monday night, Venables said, “I don’t know when John Mateer will be back,” as OU fans are concerned if the No. 6 Sooners will have their starting quarterback for the Red River Rivalry against unranked Texas at 2:30 p.m. CT Saturday in Dallas.

Brent Venables still claims no update on John Mateer’s status ahead of Red River Rivalry

On Tuesday morning, though, just over an hour before Venables held his weekly presser, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that Mateer “is pushing to return this week” and “there’s a belief that his return is possible.” Despite the new update, Venables still buckled down that he doesn’t have any idea on Mateer’s status and hasn’t sounded optimistic when he has slipped any sort of information, including on Saturday when he said he assumes Mateer will not play against Texas.

“He’s doing his normal protocol,” Venables said Tuesday when asked if Mateer is doing more at practice this week. “He’s done zero good-on-good work.”

The next reporter didn’t even get the full question out before Venables cut them off.

“I’m just gonna cut you off,” Venables said. “I don’t know anything about the injury. When they (the training staff) tell me he’s available, I’ll let you all know.”

Venables said last week that Mateer would “push the limits” to return as quickly as possible, and offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle echoed that sentiment on Tuesday. However, Venables said then he’d probably have to hold Mateer back from pushing too much with the injury.

For the third question related to Mateer, Venables was asked how he’s balanced Mateer wanting to get back on the field while also needing to make sure Mateer is healthy all season.

“I just lean on the doctors,” Venables said. “I’m not an expert in any of it. Literally, that’s the extent of it.”

Finally, with it already being known sophomore Michael Hawkins Jr. would start last week to replace Mateer against Kent State, Venables was asked how this week was different since it seems unknown who will play quarterback for the Sooners against Texas.

“John is doing no good-on-good work,” Venables said. “So it’s Michael and Whitt (Newbauer) right now. If something changes I’ll let you know.

“But I think if you’re gonna play you got to do good-on-good, right? Throw some (skeleton), hand the ball off, play on third downs.”

OU is required to give injury updates throughout the week before conference games with the SEC Availability Report, which will first release Wednesday evening, then daily until kickoff. That will be the best chance for media and fans to get an actual status update on Mateer unless there’s a solid report before Saturday afternoon.